Remembering Aylan and Umran: Two images that defined a decade of Syrian civil war

On Sunday, Bashar al-Assad fled Syria as opposition forces took control of capital Damascus, marking a historic end to the Baath Party rule and the country’s 13-year bloody civil war. Two images in particular had defined the tragedies that came out of Syria in over a decade of conflict, namely of Aylan and Umran.

Four years into the civil war in 2015, baby Aylan had washed up on Fenerburnu beach in Akyarlar neighborhood of Türkiye’s Bodrum. Aylan was with 14 other people fleeing the conflict in Syria on a fiber boat attempting to cross to Greece when it sank, killing five onboard. The lifeless body of Aylan on the shore had led to international outcry.

A year after Aylan, another image that defined a decade of Syrian civil war emerged this time from Aleppo.

Baby Umran was pulled alive from under the rubble of his home after an airstrike leveled the building.

In footage released by the Syrian opposition, five-year-old Umran was seen sitting quietly in the back of an ambulance after being pulled from the rubble, covered in dust and with a bloody face.

“He put his hand to his face and saw the blood. He had no idea what was going on,” the Syrian journalist who took his picture had said about the incident.

Aylan and Umran became symbols of the violence and conflict that ensued following the start of the civil war in Syria in March 2011.